This Sunday, Aug. 3, 2014 photo provided by the Westchester County police in White Plains, NY, shows the toy ATV used by a 6-year-old boy to drive onto the Bronx River Parkway. (AP Photo/Westchester County Police)

(Newser)
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Drivers on the Bronx River Parkway were a little surprised to see a 6-year-old driving his miniature ATV beside them last night. The boy's mom was even more surprised to discover him missing. It started on a family trip to a park in Mount Vernon, New York, where the autistic boy rode off unnoticed at around 7pm, the Journal News reports. "They realized pretty quickly he was gone but couldn't lay eyes on him," a police spokesman said. Bystanders say the mother was frantically calling for her boy as kids ran back and forth looking for him, 7Online reports.

Soon he had zoomed onto the northbound parkway and was even trying to merge into the middle lane, police and witnesses say. So drivers boxed him in and grabbed him just as police arrived. "He was like, 'I need to go home, mom, mom,' all he kept saying was 'mom,'" said Ana Rubio, one of the drivers. Another was said to be shaking with goosebumps, telling people, "I almost hit a kid." As for the boy, he seemingly "didn't know he was on a highway, he just wanted to go home," said Rubio. He was taken to a hospital first and "found to be OK," reports 7Online, but police are still investigating. (Read about an autistic boy allegedly kept in a cage.)